Month End SF Book Group (Paramus, NJ) - 2013 Books Read Thread

[Phil]

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2013:


JANE BITES BACK..................................Michael Thomas Ford...................11/29/13
THEFT OF SWORDS...............................Michael S Sullivan........................10/31/13
QUINTESSENCE....................................David Walton...............................09/30/13
EDGE OF INFINITY................................Jonathan Strahan.........................08/30/13
NIGHTSHADE.......................................Andrea Cremer............................07/31/13
THE JENNIFER MORGUE........................Charles Stross.............................06/28/13
SHATTERED aka CRASHED......................Robin Wasserman........................05/31/13
HAMMERED.........................................Kevin Hearne...............................04/30/13
EVEN W T ZOMBIES GET BLUES..............Diana Rowland.............................03/29/13
CONAN THE BARBARIAN.......................Robert Howard............................02/28/13
YEAR'S BEST SF 17................................Hartwell / Cramer.........................01/31/13

[Phil]

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2013 Philip J De Parto.


JANE BITES BACK, Jane Fairfax 1
Taras had been recommending this romantic fantasy romp for some time. A couple of hundred years ago, Jane Austen was turned into a vampire by Lord Byron. Flash forward to the present. Despite 116 rejections, Ms Austen still has not given up on finding a publisher for her final novel, CONSTANCE. She is now called Jane Fairfax and resides in a small town in upstate New York where she runs a small bookstore. In short order, five events occur to upend her cozy existence: 1) a brooding handsome man appears on the scene (Lord Byron). 2) she is wooed by an attractive, ordinary man, 3) she reveals her secret to her employee and friend, Lucy, 4) her existence is threatened by another famous vampire, and 5) a publisher loves her book and plans a massive publicity campaign for the work (newspaper ads, television appearances, RWA conventions, etc.)

This is not a terrific book, but it has some great bits, poking fun at academia (Austen afficionados vs Bronte boosters), popular fiction (" a wildly popular series about a woman who as a celebrated designer by day and a monster hunter by night") and celebrity culture.

THEFT OF SWORDS, Riyria 1
The volume consists of THE CROWN CONSPIRACY (originally published by a small press) and AVEMPARTHA (originally a self-published e-book) and features idealistic human mercenary Hadrian Blackwater and cynical half-elf thief Royce Melborn. The duo have made a profitable livelihood doing sensitive jobs for the nobility of Avryn when a commission to steal a noble's sword implicates them in the murder of King Amrath of Melengar, an act with political, religious and racial repercussions.

Only Jeni and Phil had read the work and both enjoyed it. There is nothing very original in it, and the author uses workmanlike prose, but knows how to tell a story. It has the same simple, honest storytelling as a good E R Burroughs title.

QUINTESSENCE, Quintessence 1
The book opens in England with the return of a ship sent to establish a colony on an island at the edge of the world (this is a flat-Earth universe). The dying crewmen tell tales of the wonders they found there, but the supposed treasures in the hold are merely barrels of sand and stones. As King Edward VI lies dying and the nation readies for war between Catholics and Protestants, court physician Stephen Parris and his daughter, Catherine, become enmeshed in the scheme of mad alchemist Christopher Sinclair to mount a second expedition to the fabled land.

There are three sections to the book: the preparations for the journey in England, the voyage itself, and the exploration of the new world and its inhabitants. This is too much plot for three hundred pages and short changes character development. The author would have been better served having the Spanish Inquisition arrive in book two. The quest for alchemical quintessence, the flora and fauna of the island, and the relations with the natives would be more than enough to carry the work.

While this may be off-putting to many readers, I really enjoyed that the characters are not 21st Century Americans in attitude. Catherine is warned by her mother that men will not allow her to compete with them, that she must work behind the scenes to bend them to her will. The learned men seek to reconcile the wonders they encounter with scripture and with Aristotle. Sinclair views his setbacks as a retribution from God, but vows to press on and raise the dead nonetheless.

EDGE OF INFINITY
The 13 story anthology is set in the near-future solar system and generally has the feel of traditional, old-time science fiction. In fact several stories seemed almost homages to particular authors: "The Depths of the Sky" (Elizabeth Bear/Hal Clement), "Drive" (James Corey/Robert Heinlein), and "Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh" (John Barnes/Isaac Asimov). The best stories (according to Phil, the only one who read the book) were Pat Cadigan's Hugo-Nominated "The Girl Who Went Out for Sushi," "The Road to NPS" by Sandra McDonald and Stephen Covey, and "Bricks, Sticks, Straw by Gwyneth Jones.

NIGHTSHADE, Nightshade 1
NIGHTSHADE is the first in the author's YA contemporary fantasy series of the same name. The heroine is high school student Calla, who is soon to enter into an arranged marriage with her friend, Ren. The pair are alpha werewolves, aka Guardians, whose lives are ruled by the sorcerous Keepers, who also have other supernatural creatures at their beck-and-call. Opposing the Keepers are the mysterious renegade Searchers who have deadly abilities of their own.

Liz and Pam found the writing dull and the plotting formulaic. Phil enjoyed the interpersonal dynamics of the wolf pack and enjoyed the characterization. All agreed that the book really did not have an ending, it just stopped with a cliff-hanger.

THE JENNIFER MORGUE, Laundry Files 2
The volume consists of the novella, "The Jennifer Morgue," the short story, "Pimpf," an afterword, "The Golden Age of Spying," and a glossary of fictitious and real abbreviations, acronyms, and organizations. This is the second book in Stross' Laundry Files series begun in THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES (discussed last year at the Monsters of Horror Book Group) featuring British computer-geek-turned-spy, Bob Howard.

The series fuses the espionage genre with that of dark fantasy / horror. Bob is a mid-level operative who discovers himself cast as James Bond in opposition to powerful, rich, monologue-spewing, cat-cradling, Nehru-jacketed, power-mad industrialist Ellis Billington who plans to raise one of the creatures from "At the Mountains of Madness" to battle the aquatic Deep Ones from "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," who are the true rulers of the world (they simply permit humans to inhabit land masses and other areas of the Earth they find inhospitable).

I really, really liked MORGUE. The writing is dense at times (Liz felt the in-jokes and references would have worked better if they were more spaced out) but rewarding. The footnotes. The Power Point Presentations. The homages. And most especially the plot.

Billington has engineered a magic ritual powered by the psychic energy of billions of people who have read Ian Fleming and watched James Bond movies over the past 50 years. The magic prevents anyone but The Hero, from thwarting his plans. As expected, Bob Howard arrives on the villain's Russian-frigate-turned-luxury-yacht wearing tailored attire, sipping martinis and accompanied by a beautiful-but-deadly American assassin. But Billington has an ace up his sleeve, a method to neutralize Bob without violating the logic of the ritual. I was smiling for days afterwards.

SHATTERED aka CRASHED, Cold Awakening 2
We began with a recap of events in FROZEN (aka SKINNED), the first book in the trilogy, culminating in a reading of the scene in which protagonist Lia Kahn, who had been fatally injured in a car crash and downloaded into a mechanical body, decides to leave her biological family and live with the other mechs.

The early sections of SHATTERED deal with Lia's adjustment to her new "family," abilities, and limitations. Pesonal trials and tribulations soon get pushed to the backgroupnd as terrorist attacks and anti-mech fundamentalism upsets the balance of power in this ravaged world. Phil liked it, Jeni didn't, Karen was so-so. No one else had finished it. Good discussion, though.

HAMMERED, Iron Druid 3
The book is a plot / action driven contemporary fantasy featuring Atticus O'Sullivan, the last living druid who has been alive for two thousand years due to his knowledge of magic and herbs. As a result of events happening in earlier books in the series, Atticus is a reluctant member of a mixed band of supernatural creatures determined to storm Asgard and kill the Norse god, Thor.

Thor is not the noble hero from Marvel Comics. Lots of human and immortal folks would be happy to see the hammer-tosser dead. But there are also warnings from Atticus' Celtic death goddess and Jesus Christ that killing Thor would result in very dire consequences. Still Atticus has given his work, and he must honor it.

Phil was the only one who enjoyed the book. Jeni, Liz and Karen all abandoned reading or listening to it at some point in the narrative. They didn't care for the hero and Jeni found it simply written and very superficial. Phil thought it was weaker than the first two books in the series but had some interesting moments, such as when the invading party sits around a campfire and tells tales why each one has it in for Thor.

EVEN WHITE TRASH ZOMBIES GET BLUES, Zombie 2
Oddly enough for a series with a zombie as the protagonist, the book is character-driven. Zombies in this series function pretty much like vampires, except they need brains instead of blood. As long as they get their fix, they can function perfectly well in society (if they don't get brains, they start to decompose and become mindless shambling predators). High school drop out Angel, who lives in a trailer with her alcoholic father, considers herself a loser. But someone felt she was basically a good kid who never got a break. He turned her into a zombie after a bad car crash in order to save her life.

Angel now has a job in the County Coroner's office (which gives her access to brains) and is slowly getting her act together. Unfortunately, the local zombie population has been discovered by a company that feels that zombies would make wonderful soldiers and is hunting and experimenting on them. A good book.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN
"The Phoenix on the Sword," "The People of the Black Circle" "The Tower of the Elephant," "Queen of the Black Coast," "Red Nails," and "Rogues in the House" are the stories in this volume. "Red Nails" and "The People of the Black Circle" are the longest tales, a pair of novelettes approaching the size of a novella. "Nails" is perhaps the finest Conan yarn written by Howard, a concoction of monsters, magic and madness co-starring the author's finest woman-warrior, Valeria. Conan's sadness for the suffering alien sorcerer in "The Tower of the Elephant" shows a softer side of the warrior than we usually witness. "Rogues in the House" is gloriously pulp, with Conan and two reluctant companions trying to stay alive in a deadly manor house. This book will not be for everyone, but anyone who enjoys action-packed fantastic adventure stories will love it.

YEAR'S BEST SF 17
There was little agreement about the merits of the stories. Every story promoted by one person was bashed by someone else. Karen liked "Tethered" by Mercurio D Rivera and "And Weep Like Alexander" by Neil Gaiman. Phil praised "The Ice Owl" by Carolyn Ives Gilman and "For I Have Lain Me Down of the Stone of Loneliness and I'll Not Be Back Again" by Michael Swanwick. Jeni enjoyed "Home Sweet Bi'ome" by Pat Mac Ewand and "The Middle of Somewhere" by Judith Moffett. Taras lauded "Wahala" by Nnedi Okorafor and "The Education of Junior # 12" by Madeline Ashby.